Malawi AIDS Commission in ICASA 2013 preparatory meetings

The Nation Aids Commission (Nac) will hold a series of preparatory meetings to strategize on how Malawi will best present her achievements and best practices in the AID/AIDS national response at this year’s 17th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA).

The ICASA 2013 will be convened by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA) will take place in December in Cape Town, South Africa.

For proper country coordination and participation, Nac has resolved to conduct preparatory meetings as a forum for sharing the country’s level information and reach a consensus on what to show at the forthcoming conference.

The first preparatory meeting will take place on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at the Nac offices in Lilongwe.

ICASA is said to be the “premier and biggest” gathering for those working in the field of HIV and AIDS, leading scientists, academicians as well as policy makers, person living with HIV and other individuals committed to ending the scourge.

NAC boss Thomas Bisika

According to www.ICASA 2013.ORG, ICASA will provide an opportunity for participants to acquire new knowledge, foster multisectoral dialogue, constructive debate, promote individual and collective action and reinforce accountability amongst stakeholders and implementers of HIV’AIDS programmes.

The theme for the December 2013 conference is “Now More than Ever: Targeting Zero”, derived from the UNAIDS global vision of striving for zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths.

“It is in view of this development that NAC is requesting organizations and individuals who have registered or submitted abstracts and presentations to ICASA 2013 to inform the Commission of their submissions and prepare to participate in the preparatory meetings.

“The purpose of sharing the abstracts and presentations is only to make sure that the country level colleagues that may participate at the conference are aware about what is being presented at the conference so that they can support the presentation,” says Nac in statement seen by Nyasa Times.

Participation to the preparatory meeting for ICASA 2013 will be limited to those who have registered and submitted abstracts and presentations to the conference coordinating team, according to Nac.